WITNESS INTIMIDATION A GROWING PROBLEM IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY
The threats come in text messages, social media and phone calls.
Someone flashes a look at a neighbor who called the cops. Others mutter under their breath as a witness leaves a courtroom. At trial, a spectator puts two fingers near his temple, signaling to a witness he could be executed if he tells what he saw.
Houses are set on fire. Witnesses are shot and killed.
Although police and prosecutors are charging more and more people with witness intimidation, it continues to pervade — and pervert — the criminal justice system in Milwaukee County.
In 2015, the year Antonio Smith sought to silence witnesses to a homicide, prosecutors charged nearly 190 people with witness intimidation — a 250% increase from a decade before, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of court data found.
The 2015 cases resulted in a lower rate of dismissals, more convictions, and longer sentences than those issued in 2005, the analysis found.
Smith was accused of witness intimidation in 2005, but never charged. That year, he tried to shoot a security guard outside a Milwaukee concert venue and later called the guard from jail asking him not to testify. The guard said he reported the call from Smith but nothing happened.
“Witness intimidation undermines the capacity of the criminal justice system to deliver justice to victims,” Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said. “It also creates a climate of fear in people’s ability to trust the system.”
Witness intimidation plays a role from the start of a case: Do people pick up the phone to call police about a problem in their neighborhood? Many people do not want an officer to come to their door, feeling that will mark them for harassment — or worse — from those in their neighborhood.
Declining trust in police also can be a factor. One study found a correlation between a decline in 911 calls in black neighborhoods after a high-profile police misconduct case became public in Milwaukee.
Prosecutors say witness intimidation comes up most frequently in domestic violence and cases related to drug and gang violence. Investigators in the District Attorney's Office take the lead investigating intimidation in the county.
Here are some high-profile examples of recent witness intimidation cases:
Christopher M. Anderson, 25, killed two people, tried to kill two others and set a man on fire after dousing him with gasoline.
One of the people Anderson killed was Jarvis Johnson, whose brother Anderson and his group believed had given police information about a rolling gun battle on Interstate 43 downtown.
As his mother drove Johnson, a kidney transplant patient who did not witness the earlier crime, they were shot at repeatedly by a passing vehicle. Johnson suffered a fatal wound. A witness testified that the men intended to kill Johnson's mother, thinking her death would serve as a warning and stop others from cooperating with law enforcement.
In June, Anderson received consecutive life terms without the possibility of release. Since his convictions, he's been charged with soliciting the murders of three more "rats" from inside jail. He’s due back in court later this month on those charges.
Danta Rowsey, 29, was convicted by a jury last year of three murders and an attempted fourth homicide.
The case began in late 2011 when Rowsey and two others decided to rob a man of his designer sunglasses. The botched robbery ended up in a murder.
Then, Rowsey decided he had to kill the two men who had acted as lookouts during the robbery. He feared the men would turn on him. So Rowsey arranged to have the men killed by a hired hit man, Emmanuel "E-Bay" Carter.
After Carter finished the job, Rowsey determined Carter had to go, too. He arranged for another man to kill Carter, but the shooting did not kill Carter. Instead, he was paralyzed and later testified against Rowsey. In July 2016, Rowsey received a double life sentence in the slayings.
Robert McCorkle, 32, received a life sentence in 2015 after killing a man who had identified McCorkle's friend as the person who shot at him.
Richard Conn, 26, was near N. 11th St. and Finn Place when a barrage of gunfire erupted on May 17, 2014. Conn later told police he saw Hakeem Dontrail Harris shooting at him in that incident.
Harris and McCorkle were friends. On July 5, 2014, McCorkle and another man approached Conn at the same corner where he had been shot at weeks earlier.
McCorkle shot Conn once in the head.
McCorkle later joked with Harris in jail, suggesting Harris should move to have his case dismissed since there would now be no witness to testify against him. McCorkle was convicted at trial and the threat of intimidation extended to the jury pool. Two people were dismissed after expressing fear for their safety during jury selection.
Walter Coleman, 24, almost killed a heroin addict when he shot the man in the chest during a drug deal turned robbery.
Then Coleman, who was behind bars, tried to ensure the addict did not testify. The man, who had stayed off drugs since the incident, did take the stand, twice.
The man said he was threatened by another dealer, Montrell Hilson. After threatening the man, Hilson himself was targeted and gunshots were fired at his house. Hilson was told he and his family would be killed if he testified.
Coleman's first trial ended in a mistrial when a juror learned that Hilson had disappeared. Someone in the gallery secretly took video of testimony and posted it on social media, which spooked Hilson. Coleman was convicted in a second trial and received 28 years in prison.
Michael R. Cooper, 38, is accused of killing a tavern owner and then shooting two witnesses two weeks later.
Cooper was charged in February with first-degree intentional homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the shooting death of Michael Patton, 44, who was killed last fall inside his bar, Mike's Place.
The case is expected to be combined with two attempted homicide charges filed against Cooper in November when prosecutors say he shot two people in the head. Both people survived their injuries. One of the individuals was a witness to the tavern homicide, while the other had some knowledge of it, according to investigators.
Cooper's next court date is scheduled for October.
Michael Birk, 41, is accused of breaking into a woman's house, raping her at gunpoint and then plotting to kill the woman from behind bars.
After he was booked in Milwaukee County Jail on sexual assault and burglary charges in early June, prosecutors say Birk offered another inmate $10,000 to kill the woman.
Birk provided the inmate with a description of the victim in the sexual assault case and a map to her house, the criminal complaint says. The inmate told investigators about the offer and they developed a plan to get Birk to speak to a fake hit man known as “Magic.”
When Birk called “Magic,” who was a law enforcement officer, he detailed where the woman worked and where her children live, according to the complaint.
When asked what he wants done to the woman, Birk replied: "Done, gone."
“No witness, no crime," he said.
Birk is expected back in court in September. Ellen Gabler, formerly of the Journal Sentinel staff, contributed to this report.